Live Planet VR Camera Has 16 Lenses; Preorder For $4,995

Reality Lab Networks announced that its Live Planet 4K VR and 360 video content camera is now available for preorder.

The Live Planet video system in intended to be an end-to-end solution for VR and 360 video streaming, and it includes a camera with 16 Full HD lenses and a proprietary cloud-based software suite for managing, transcoding and delivering content to all VR and 360 video platforms. The camera is capable of live streaming 4K-per-eye 4096 x 4096 (8192 x 8192 for stills) video at 30 fps, and streaming at 60 fps with recorded content. A Nvidia Tegra X1 GPU powers the device, which also features a vertical rolling shutter and provides a full field of view (360 x 180 degrees).

The company designed the cloud-based software platform to make it quick and easy to create and distribute video without an external stitching box or post production for all current and emerging VR platforms, including Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Connect, Facebook Live, Google Cardboard and YouTube Live Streaming.

The camera sports HD-SDI and HDMI outputs, in addition to two USB 3.0 ports and an Ethernet connection. You can also connect to a network wirelessly with onboard Wi-Fi. Users can record sessions directly to the 512 GB internal storage, and the Live Planet camera supports HLS and MPEG-DASH output protocols.

The ability to stream 4K VR content doesn’t come without a price. The Live Planet system will have an MSRP of $9,995 when it comes to market, but you can preorder it now for $4,995. The reduced cost is still a bit tough to swallow for the average consumer, but the introductory price has content creators chomping at the bit, and anyone interested in a purchase should visit the company’s website now (there are only 500 units available at this price). Reality Lab Networks said it expects the camera to start shipping in Q4 2016.

Nice to see another design win for the Nvidia X1. This thing will sell like hot-cakes to VR content creators. This is a crucial time where anyone can become the next big VR video producer, because of little competition.

Not sure what this has to do with VR. It's just a 360 degree camera. Put a headset on displaying content of this and all you can do is rotate your head - you can't move around or do any of the stuff we'd really associate with VR. Does it even display in stereo - not properly I bet as that would require 2 cameras facing the same direction 6cm apart. The best you could use it for is a backdrop for your real VR application.